Author: Matthew Lombard

Call: “Creativity in the Light of AI” issue of Odradek

Published:

July 14, 2020

CALL FOR PAPERS Creativity in the Light of AI Odradek – Studies in Philosophy of Literature, Aesthetics, and New Media Theories [vol. 8, n. 1, 2022] Editors: Caterina Moruzzi, Mario Verdicchio, Fabio Fossa Publication: approx. November 2021/January 2022 Language: English Submission deadline: 29/01/2021 Authors can find submission guidelines at the following link: https://odradek.cfs.unipi.it/index.php/odradek/about/submissions For many, creativity is a field where humanity can paradigmatically express itself. Scientific and technological discoveries, crafting, advertising, fashion are all fields that require and foster creativity. Yet, it is difficult to deny that when we think of creativity, we associate it mostly with the Arts, and…

How increasingly sophisticated AI will change our responses to human-like machines

Published:

July 14, 2020

[This is a thoughtful survey of some fascinating and important issues and questions raised by incorporating artificial intelligence in human-like machines, creating medium-as-social-actor presence. It’s from USC Dornsife and draws on the expertise of researchers affiliated with the USC Dana and David Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences; see the original version for a second image. –Matthew] [Image: Credit: Mathieu Persan] Do Humans Dream of Androids Dreaming? From the species that brought you the moon landing and the hot dog eating contest, artificial intelligence is here to change the world. By Stephen Koenig July 7, 2020 The first question…

Call: SBGames 2020 – Brazilian Symposium on Computer Games and Digital Entertainment – Arts and Design Track

Published:

July 13, 2020

[Note: There are several other presence-related tracks, some with earlier deadlines; follow link below for more information. –ML] Call for Papers 2020 Brazilian Symposium on Computer Games and Digital Entertainment (SBGames) Arts and Design Track Online 7-10 November https://www.sbgames.org/sbgames2020/ NOTE: This year, due to the restrictions caused by COVID-19, the symposium will be held entirely online. SBGames (Brazilian Symposium on Computer Games and Digital Entertainment) is the largest and most important event for games and digital entertainment in Latin America. Realized by the SBC, the event receives scientists, artists, designers, teachers, and students from colleges, universities, research centers, and the…

Teletherapy, popular in the pandemic, may outlast it

Published:

July 13, 2020

[The pandemic has accelerated the use of presence-evoking technologies in many contexts including psychological therapy, the subject of this story from The New York Times (where the original includes a second image). Even with the current limitations of presence via videoconferencing covered here, wider use of remote therapy is said to be likely to continue after the pandemic. The potential of emerging media such as virtual and augmented reality (as well as artificial intelligence) is not considered in the story but seems likely to even further enhance the effectiveness and success of teletherapy. –Matthew] [Image: Credit: Kim Ryu] Teletherapy, Popular…

Call: EuroVR 2020 International Conference

Published:

July 10, 2020

Call for Contributions EuroVR 2020 17th EuroVR International Conference 25-27 November Valencia, Spain (see note below) https://i3b.webs.upv.es/webs/eurovr/ IMPORTANT DATES For the Scientific track, contributions deadlines are: Full Paper submissions (Scientific talks): July 19, 2020 23:59 CEST Short Paper submissions (Scientific posters): July 26, 2020 23:59 CEST Notifications to the authors for all Scientific submissions: September 6, 2020 Camera ready for all Scientific contributions: September 26, 2020 23:59 CEST For the Application track and the Demo & Exhibition track, contributions deadlines are: Short abstract submissions for all related categories: September 11, 2020 Notification to authors for all related categories: October 2,…

Study: Moving – even in VR – can increase our creativity and problem-solving

Published:

July 10, 2020

[The study described in this short story from Massive Science is interesting both as a clever use of virtual reality and presence in psychology research and for the implications of its results for how we choose to structure our work activities in actual and virtual environments. –Matthew] [Image: Figure 2 from “Studying the effects of visual movement on creativity”: “Three screenshots from the participants’ point of view in the moving condition, with the lights moving from front to back.”] Moving – even in virtual reality – can increase our creativity and problem-solving Feeling low on ideas? Trick yourself into thinking…

Call: MUM 2020, 19th International Conference on Mobile and Ubiquitous Multimedia

Published:

July 9, 2020

Call for Papers MUM 2020, the 19th International Conference on Mobile and Ubiquitous Multimedia 22-25 November 2020 Essen, Germany (see Note below) http://www.mum-conf.org/2020/ IMPORTANT DATES: Submissions: August 10th, 2020 Notifications: October 1st, 2020 Conference Dates: November 22nd-25th, 2020 NOTE: Due to the ongoing COVID-19 situation, we are currently looking into different ways to hold MUM2020. The latest developments show that the German government is loosening the meeting and travel restrictions, and we are currently exploring the idea of running a hybrid conference allowing physical as well as virtual participation by November. The safety of all attendees is our primary concern,…

Teleoperation in a pandemic: Japanese convenience stores testing VR-controlled robots

Published:

July 9, 2020

[Among the presence-evoking technologies useful during a pandemic is teleoperated robots. This story from Digital Trends describes how they’re being tested by the FamilyMart chain of Japanese stores; the original version of the story includes the impressive 1:20 minute timeline video from the website of the robots’ maker, Telexistence (it’s also available via YouTube). Coverage in VRScout begins with this: “Imagine walking into your local convenience store only to find the usual checkout person had been replaced by a remote-controlled robot operated in VR by a human being located hundreds of miles away”; see that story for more images and…

Facebook’s prototype photoreal avatars now have realistic eyes

Published:

July 8, 2020

[Effective social presence in virtual reality depends on realistic real-time digital representations of human eyes; this short story from UploadVR describes a new system developed by Facebook Research to accomplish this. The abstract of the detailed research report about the system concludes with this: “Our quantitative experiments show that our method results in higher reconstruction quality, and qualitative results show our method gives a greatly improved sense of presence for VR avatars.” You can find the abstract and full paper along with a 5:14 minute video (also available via YouTube) on the Facebook Research website. –Matthew] Facebook’s Prototype Photoreal Avatars…

Call: Designing for Orchestration in Mixed and Virtual Reality: Challenges and Best Practices – NordiCHI 2020 workshop

Published:

July 7, 2020

Call for Papers “Designing for Orchestration in Mixed and Virtual Reality: Challenges and Best Practices” NordiCHI 2020 workshop 25th of October 2020, 9:00 – 17:30 https://www.unitylab.de/designing-for-orchestration-in-xr-nordichi-2020-workshop Paper submission deadline: 1st of September 2020 NOTE: The workshop will be held as a full-day workshop containing four sessions with distinguished activities. We aim for an interactive workshop with space for discussion and expression. Due to the current CoVid-19 pandemic, we plan to offer this workshop online, mediated using online conferencing tools and web-based shared virtual spaces. In case of the conference taking place in Tallinn, the workshop can easily be offered on-site.…

New documentary highlights positive use of deepfake technology

Published:

July 7, 2020

[Vox reports on a rare positive use of deepfake technology: disguising identities of vulnerable people who appear on camera while allowing viewers to fully “see” them. See the original story for two different images and three videos. For more details and a video about the process, see coverage in Documentary Magazine, which adds this important detail: “It’s possible for the face veil to be completely undetectable. But France and his team wanted viewers to know who wore a [digital] veil and who didn’t. (The Russian activists generally did not.) ‘It’s an instant visual communicator that that person is in danger,’…

Call: Phenomenology and Virtuality issue of Indo-Pacific Journal of Phenomenology

Published:

July 6, 2020

Call for Papers Indo-Pacific Journal of Phenomenology Special issue: Phenomenology and Virtuality https://www.nisc.co.za/news/137/announcements-and-notices/call-for-papers-phenomenology-and-virtuality Edited by Gregory Swer and Jean du Toit Submissions due before: 24 August 2020 Our age is typified by technology (Kroes & Meijers, 2016: 12), but it is the question of the virtual that has particularly come to the forefront after the turn of the century. The contemporary era of emergent digital technologies has seen the multiplication of virtual spaces – our civilizations are indeed steeped in the virtual – which has resulted in complex changes to the dimensions of our existence and experience. While thinkers such…

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